Customer Reviews

In the Hunt: Unauthorized Essays on Supernatural (Smart Pop series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

"In the Hunt" has a warning of sorts at the very beginning, pointing out that the essays were written before season four aired, but I didn't find the essays to be any less enlightening or fascinating.

I do have to say my curiosity made me skip to read the essays on the Impala first, before going back to read from the beginning to end. I thought all of the essays were informative and some of essays were just plain hilarious too. I would find myself either mentally nodding along in agreement with the essays or finding even more connections and interesting points that I hadn't considered or noticed before. I also found myself having an even greater appreciation for all of the efforts of the writers' in tying in all the mythology/folklore into a show that's not just a monster-of-the-week show.

I think anyone who enjoys digging into the nuances of the show would like this book. Hopefully, after a few more seasons and/or the show ends, they'll be another book that explores everything that has happened since this book was published.

Although outdated, this is nonetheless an interesting read. In fact, viewed in retrospective it's fascinating how some viewers predicted certain aspects of the show. Some of the essays are not as good as others. In fact, some of them are just plain horrible. But the ones that are good are truly spectacular and more than outweigh the bad ones.

However, I would only recommend this book to diehard fans of the show. If you obsess about Supernatural and are interested in the opinions of fellow fans, you should definitely check this book out.

As a person who appreciates critical essays, I found this book to be insightful and amusing. A wonderful social & psychological delve into the world of Supernatural, this is a must have for any die-hard fan of the Winchester brothers. The essays in this book are well written, well thought-out, and bring out all of the underlying messages in Supernatural. Althought it is slightly outdated (the disclaimer in the beginning of the book does warn you of this, as it was written prior to the airing of Season Four) it touches on core issues the resignate from season to season. You won't be disappointed!

Still reading this! But had to come post a review. This is a really fun little book for people who like discussing the ins and outs of Supernatural. All the little psychological bits and concepts that make the show fun. Well. Not ALL of them of coure but a nice chunk.

There are some great essays in here. And sadly some terrible ones. But it's a discussion book, not a fact book so I discount the fact I disagree with some of the statements in it.

One essay I particularly disliked was by Dodger Winslow wherein she used a million parenthesis to compare the reader to Sammy saying we wished we were Dean but were actually Sammy because-....Well, I got lost so many times reading it I couldn't figure out what she was trying to say exactly. In short what I got was she was what some fans call a 'Sam Girl' I guess? And she didn't really like Dean that much. Which I'm sure is not the conclusion she was aiming for but sadly the one I came to.

Essays I loved:

Tanya Huff's "We're Not Exactly the Bradys" was interesting. A bit on John Winchester who wasn't the best father, was possibly not even a GOOD father all the time but he wasn't bad.

I adored Tanya Michaels' "Dean Winchester: Bad-Ass. . . or Soccer Mom?" especially because it suggested some great things I'd never even thought of about Dean.

"Another Roadside Attraction" by Maria Lima was possibly one of my favorites because she covers the Trickster aspect so well. There was so much more meat in those trickster episodes than I'd expected and reading her essay really clued me in. Loved it.

I may come back and add more but so far I'm really enjoying the book!

As usual in a collection like this, the reading quality of these essays varies greatly. The writers are all uniformly very good writers but sometimes a cute stunt gets in the way of an actually useful thing to say. Actually that happens sort of a lot. Other pieces are almost too technical and written like high-quality college thesis papers. Then some are really interesting and hold the attention. For a fan, none of this will matter too much but while I love Supernatural, I also want something worthwhile in reading about my show. So. Half are well worth the read and half are not worth the time (a few made my eyes cross just trying to get through them, they were trying so darn hard to be clever). Average score 3 because of that. If you don't mind skipping some of the more tedious rants, the rest are excellent.

This book is absolutely fantastic. While I may not agree with every essay, I definitely enjoy reading every perspective presented within them, and have thus far (I am halfway through the book) enjoyed every essay but two (one for its thesis, another for its odd style - but I'll leave assessments like those to the individual reader, as it's hardly my place to judge or sway opinions). As a (rather rabid) Supernatural fan, I know I have thought about many aspects of this show in (probably unhealthy) depth, and reading this book has only heightened my opinion that Supernatural is, in fact, the greatest TV show ever made. Thanks to Kripke for the show, and thanks to all the people who made this book possible - it was a brilliant idea!

~Jay

I'm a big Supernatural fan & thought that this might bring some interesting insights to the series & characters, but alas, t'was not to be. In hoping for a Supernatural version of The Philosophy of the Matrix or The Psychology of the Simpsons, I found only fan fiction-type essays, which were mediocre at best.

The one thing that would've seriously improved this book (& possibly made it palatable) is if it were written/released after the 4th season instead of the 3rd. There are a lot of mentions of the lack of angels in this book, which, as we all know, are introduced in that first 4th season episode. In addition, the fact that it was released post-3rd season is reminiscent of The Monster at the End of the Book episode, where Dean tells the book publisher that it's such a complete series, "what with Dean going to hell." But how anyone could be completely satisfied with a series ending with a main character going to hell is beyond me. If the (real) publishers had waited, not only would they have been able to include the angel-stuff, but would've had the subject of hell to discuss with real reflection on how the series portrayed it.

In short, if you're really committed to reading this book, borrow it from the library & save yourself the money.

Hi to all Supernatural fans,In The Hunt Unauthorized Essays On Supernatural is a good read but there are a few criticisms in the essays but a lot of it is good things siad in the book so I would still recommend fans to buy this book and see what you think of it.

The Smart Pop series tends to vary wildly in quality and 'In The Hunt' is no exception. But for the most part the essays were clever and readable and I enjoyed it as much as you can enjoy anything about 'Supernatural' that doesn't have pictures of Jensen Ackles in it. Jacob Clifton's 'Spreading Disaster' is a really interesting take on the feminine in what would appear to be an outwardly very masculine 'verse. The essays by Carol Poole ('Who Threw Momma on The Ceiling?') and Emily Turner ('Scary Just Got Sexy' - fanfic and slash, yeah!) - are particularly good. There's also a couple of duds that make for cringeworthy reading : Heather Swan's 'A Supernatural Love Story' was obviously included by accident. But this stands up to Seven Seasons of Buffy: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Television Show and Finding Serenity: Anti-heroes, Lost Shepherds And Space Hookers In Joss Whedon's Firefly (Smart Pop Series) easily, and is far better than Five Seasons Of Angel: Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Discuss Their Favorite Vampire (Smart Pop Series). Now we just need an updated version that covers the most recent three seasons - bring it on!

These essays were all written before season four; many are very good with good insights- some are stinking piles of opinion.